1993
Philadelphia mobster Gaetano "Tommy Horsehead" Scafidi, Jr. is shot at in his car by two men in skimasks. January 8 – Arrest of Balduccio Di Maggio, former driver of Salvatore Riina. He starts to collaborate and indicates the movements of Riina. January 15 - Acting on a tip-off from informant the Carabinieri arrests Salvatore Riina in Palermo as he sat at some traffic-lights in his car. The informant was Riina’s former driver Balduccio di Maggio; several of his relatives were later murdered for this ). Giovanni Brusca has offered a controversial version of the capture of Totò Riina: a secret deal between Carabinieri officers, secret agents and Cosa Nostra bosses tired of the dictatorship of the Corleonesi. According to Brusca, Bernardo Provenzano "sold" Riina in exchange for the valuable archive of compromising material that Riina held in his apartment in Via Bernini 52 in Palermo. The Carabinieri’s (Reparto Operativo Speciale) persuaded the Palermo Public Prosecutor's Office not to immediately search the Riina’s apartment, but then abandoned the surveillance after six hours leaving it unprotected. The apartment was only raided 18 days later. The delay was caused by a "misunderstanding" over the surveillance. February 7 - Milwaukee boss Frank P. "Mr. Big" Balistrieri died in his home from a heart attack. Balistrieri had been released from prison 15 months earlier after serving a term for extortion. February 19 - Staten Island housewife Judith Shemtov was shot to death in a botched home invasion by a consortium of mob wannabes from the Bath Beach and New Springville Boys gangs. The robbery crew consisted of future Bonanno crime family associates Thomas Reynolds, James Calandra, and future Colombo crime family associate Chris Paciello, who would become famous as a club king in Miami, partying with the likes of Puff Daddy, Jennifer Lopez, Daisy Fuentes, Madonna and Nikki Taylor. After being charged with the murder Paciello became a cooperating witness in 2000, deciding to testify against Colombo crime family leaders Alphonse Persico and John DeRoss. March 2 - New Orleans boss Carlos Marcello died in his sleep in his Metairie home which he had resided at since his 1989 release from prison. March 27 – Former prime minister Giulio Andreotti is accused of collusion with the Mafia by the proscution office in Palermo. April 6 – Tommaso Buscetta, testifying before the prosecutors Gian Carlo Casselli and Guido Lo Forte, admits that the "national politician" to whom Salvo Lima would turn for matters regarding La Cosa Nostra is Giulio Andreotti. May 14 - Television-journalist Maurizio Costanzo, host of the Maurizio Costanzo Show that broadcasted some Antimafia episodes, just escapes a car-bomb attack in 1993. May 18 - Arrest of fugitive Catania Mafia boss Nitto Santapaola in a farmhouse hideout outside Catania after being on the run for 11 years. May 24 - Seven people, including priest Juan Jesús Cardinal Posadas Ocampo, are assassinated the parking lot of the Guadalajara International Airport in Mexico. Posadas Ocampo received 14 gunshot wounds whilst in his car. The government inquiry into the murder concluded that Posadas Ocampo was killed accidentally in a battle between rival drug cartels. May 25 - Chicago Outfit boss John "No Nose" DiFronzo and associate Donald "the Wizard of Odds" Angelini were sentenced to 3 years for conspiracy and fraud charges stemming from their roles in a scheme to infiltrate an Indian casino. May 28 - The Mafia detonates a bomb that kills five people and damages the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Cosa Nostra is starting a series of bomb attacks on place of cultural heritage in an open confrontation with the Italian state after the arrest of Salvatore Riina on January 15. June 25 - Rochester crime family boss Samuel Rusotti died in prison while serving a sentence for committing two murders, three attempted murders and for extorting several gambling clubs. Russotti’s 1984 conviction marked the downfall of the Rochester based organized crime family. Russotti had been responsible for causing the ABC War, where seven family members were murdered and numerous bomb explosions took place over a two year period. July 22 – Salvatore Cancemi, acting boss of the Porta Nuova family, walks into the Carabinieri station on Piazza Verdi in Palermo and turns himself in. Cancemi opposes the violent terrorist strategy of the Mafia after Riina’s arrest and fears for his life because he had said so. Riina’s brother in law Leoluca Bagarella also suspected that Cancemi had been behind the arrest of Riina. July 27-28 – The Mafia detonates bombs at the Villa Reale Museum and the Pavilion of Contemporary Art in Milan, and the Church of San Giorgio and the Lateran Vicariate in Rome on. In total the attacks (including the one in Florence on May 28) left 10 people dead and 93 injured. July 27 - Lucchese crime family consigliere Steven Crea, soldier Dominic Truscello, Genovese Family caporegime Salvatore Lombardi, Gambino Family soldier John Gammarano, and DeCavalcante Family soldier Gaetano Vastola were indicted for extorting DeLuxe Homes of Pennsylvania, a building of modular residences used in housing developments in Brooklyn and the Bronx. August 4 - Former associate of Tampa Bay boss Santo Trafficante, Jr., Harlan Blackburn was sentenced to 24 ½ years at the age of 74 on cocaine-conspiracy charges. August 24 - Chicago Outfit street boss Salvatore DeLaurentis was sentenced to 18 ½ years in prison for racketeering and income tax evasion. A week earlier, Outfit underboss Ernest "Rocky" Infelice was sentenced to 63 years in prison for similar racketeering activities as leader of the Outfit street crew. October 20 - The Colombo crime family war came to an end with the final casualty, captain Joseph Scopo, a leader in the Orena faction, was gunned down outside his home by associate John Pappa. Pappa received 45-years for his role in the war, while Alphonse Persico escaped prosecution for the war. Rival Vittorio Orena received a lengthy prison term. The war resulted in several Colombo family members becoming cooperating witnesses including former underboss Carmine Sessa John Pate, and Salvatore Miciotta. December 2 - Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar is shot and killed in Medellín. December 4 - Tijuana Cartel member Francisco Rafael Arellano Félix is arrested by the Mexican Federal Judicial Police and has US$150,000 cash seized. Arellano Félix is then incarcerated in a federal maximum security prison in Toluca, Mexico on violations of illegal arms possession, drugs charges and involvement in the murder of Cardinal Juan Posadas Ocampo. Deaths Gaetano Scafidi Jr. "Tommy Horsehead", Philadelphia mobster. February 7 - Frank Balistrieri, Milwaukee crime boss. March 2 - Carlos Marcello, former New Orleans crime boss. June 25 - Samuel Rusotti, Rochester crime boss. October 20 - Joseph Scopo, Colombo crime family capo. Category:Years